Comments

Agreed Charlotte. Was expecting to ahte Smith, but he and Moffatt are a fantastic team.

Cue moaning from the "troughton/pertwee were so much better in my day" brigade

The one with the sleepy-dream demon and the zombie OAPs was good.

I've often wondered what exactly is meant by the BBC's 'flagship' show? Is it only the BBC that has one? Is Dr Who the undisputed flagship - was there an official handing-over of the flag from Eastenders a few years ago? Did Last of the Summer Wine ever carry the title? And so on and so forth.

I think it means the flagship earner for them on the Balance Sheet - sales overseas etc

The plastic "Autons" if I recall their name are of course a homage to old Dr Who. It a Pertwee/UNIT episode I think. A bit of retro reference is OK I think.

Charlotte, I agree with you about the casting, but can't side with you on Moffat being at the helm. I think the scripts have been awful.

I don't know if it's budget cuts, but the role for monsters/aliens/threats has been downgraded to almost nugatory. Whole swathes of screen time with the monster presumably filing its nails the other side of the locked door, while the Doctor & Amy or their latest historical friend discuss love and metaphysics... Any monstrous threat is instantly magicked away with a desultory wave of a sonic screwdriver or heath robinson magic wand. Such deus ex machina would have been booed off on a Classical Greek stage, let alone now in the cynical, channel-hopping 21st century. Moffat even managed to defang the exterminating angels of the statues. They should have wiped out the Doctor's crew by about halfway through the episode.

There are too many stories set on earth and too much concern with revisiting history - Venice, Van Gough, or set in twee country villages like The Prisoner, only without the menace.

I would take Davies' scripts over Moffat's any day. His stories weren't just surface camp, they alluded to Abu Ghraib, the War In Iraq, a wonderful put down of reality shows etc etc. They worked on several levels, of which the last series could never be accused of. The one episode that hinted at more, with the trickster character offering two alternate realities of which only one could prevail, didn't quite add up to the sum of its parts.

The shop mannequins I think you'll find were not new to Davies, but threatened John Pertwee as the Autons and left me so scared of tailor's dummies that whenever my Mother parked in the high street and left me behind in the car to do her shopping, I would duck down out of view into the footwell. The terror comes from the everyday and the conventional.

I really hope Smith & Gillian get offered the scripts their chemistry deserves in future series. This threatened to be the first ever series I didn't watch all the way through.

Indeed, the Autons first appeared in 'Spearhead from Space' the first Jon Pertwee episode and the first Dr Who series in colour. It clearly had a great effect on both RTD and Steven Moffatt, RTD used the Autons in his first episode, and in 'Spearhead' Pertwee is hospitalised when he's recovering from being altered (not regenerated) by the Time Lords. When he escapes from this hospital, he steals the clothes of a doctor. Familiar at all?

Totally agree about the weaknesses of the RTD years. And I had a similar problem with Matt Smith, though replacing Tennant was easier after his last episode at which I spent rather too much time shouting, "Die! die! just get on with it and croak! die! die now!" etc

Orbital's "Doctor?" is, apart from the original, THE best version of the theme by a significant margin (and much better than this live version).

Why it was not used is beyond me. The latest theme invocation is the worst part of this series. It should not survive.

"Can't you get us out of here?..."

Is interesting to compare Amy to Sarah-Jane -- both similarly earnest and hugely engaging to everyone. But the teeny skirts with ludicrous sheer tights that never ladder are really annoying me now. Plus can I flag up the wonderful character of Rory -- very charming and refreshing. There's been atendency for the script characterisation to emasculate previous assistants' boyfriends (remember how Mickey started out).. Time for a more diverse range of writers I think.

Some of us American's have seen it and no wonder you lost the Empire!... Just joking.

Matt Smith is growing on me, but I like the edgy, no mercy, I'm old, tired so don't give me any crap Doctor. "I'm so old now. I used to have so much mercy. You get one warning.."

Piers Wenger and Stephen Moffat, pay attention!! Three things for next season as a fan I want to see. The relationship with River Song. Finally a woman who's his equal and be comes his wife. Just like in the old days of Romana. Let the Dr find relationship happiness and put the conflict in other areas the story line and plot. The second thing ... bring back the Doctors Jenny {Georgia Moffett}. Whatever happened to that character ? There is a whole universe of challenges she could present. This last season the writing was FANTASTIC.. minus the whole vampire thing...Vampires really ? Normally, I can predict where a plot is going but a few times you took me by suprise and that is NOT easy. Three: Seasonal arches are the way to go. Four: Thank you for finally understanding the concept of Continuity!

Ok I'm done.

Magic

I'm with Charlotte on this, Matt Smith is great as the new Dr, he really makes you feel that Dr is an alien and Karen Gillian is a total babe.. Can't wait for the next series, and lets hope the Beeb don't spoil it by upping the budget.

Thanks very much for this. At the moment all I seem to read is that the series is probably going to be cancelled because of low ratings and bad acting - none of which is in any way true.

You got it exactly right, some of Russell T Davies' plots and monsters made me cringe with embarrassment. On the other hand Stephen Moffat and Matt Smith in particular have made me laugh and cry in about equal measures and brought me back to Doctor Who.

Oh dear, seems like I'm in the minority on this. There again I do approach it as a writer...

I'm glad David brought up the background of the Autons, he can look like the sad geeky one, as I sail on by ;-)

I don't know what it is, but I did not enjoy this series as much as I had hoped to. I had very high hopes for "the Moff" what with all the previous best stories to date having been his, and I did think that with the first episode, all was right in the world, it was as good as I had hoped, but it never quite grabbed me that was again over the following 12 weeks. Being on the sad OCD side of things, I just got stuck on some of the dafter "leaps of faith" in the stories. Mainly the over-use of the Sonic screwdriver, and not just that, but the way matt Smith just whips it out and waves it about a bit. It is far less, this scientific instrument that can unlock a door, or even somehow act as a medical scanner, even though it doesn't have a screen to read any results from. These days, you just wave the thing about and all the troubles in the world are righted, with little or no explanation. It strikes me as odd, because it was Moffat who wrote the scene in the Eccleston era WWII story where the sonic setting was some three digit number for mending barb-wire. No whip it out and wave it about these days, and it will boost signals to space and even let you hear what aliens are saying to each other on their ships as the hover over the earth. Remarkable bit of kit!

Ye gods! We can do you a more insightful discussion on "Doctor Who" en passant over at the Coffee House!

Just for the record. Steven Moffat writes better than RTD! The recently ended season was brilliant, although the finale was just a wee bit too clever for it's own good. Amy Pond is adorable.

Marc Nash wrote:

"I would take Davies' scripts over Moffat's any day. His stories weren't just surface camp, they alluded to Abu Ghraib, the War In Iraq, a wonderful put down of reality shows etc etc."

"The Beast Below" was one of the most effective and moving meditations on the use of torture I have seen on popular telly...?

Marc Nash wrote:

"Oh dear, seems like I'm in the minority on this. There again I do approach it as a writer..."

Congratulations. You have just achieved something I did not think possible. You have surpassed even Daniel Korski in the up yersel' narcissism stakes!

Very disappointed with the new series, and I had such high hopes for the Moff and his team of writers. The story lines were naff, the monsters weak, and the only saving grace were the actors who did a sterling job with very poor scripts.
It's blatantly obvious the budget has been slashed, and as a Dr Who die hard fan I'm sad to say I lost interest in the new series. By now I'd be mourning the season end and wondering what on earth to watch on Saturday evenings, as it is I'm not bothered. Such a shame, because Russell T and all the team did such a great job at reviving the show. Come on Beeb, get your act together and bring the show back up to the standard it was at before Russell, David and Julie left. Matt, Karen and Alex are a great team of actors, and deserve better than what you're giving them to work with. So pull your socks up, we in the UK deserve better than this, after all, we do pay just under £150 a year for our TV licences, and many of us have been die hard loyal DW fans for a great many years, so don't push us away now!

Kennyboy - "I'll take that thanks" being of course the only possible response of a speculum-wielding narcissist.

Marc Nash wrote:

""I'll take that thanks" being of course the only possible response of a speculum-wielding narcissist."

Industrial strength brain bleach please!!

Doctor Who as an emotive topic of conversation, about as close to politics and religion as one can get. Love it or hate it, everyone has an opinion which is right everyone else is wrong. Hey, Doctor Who must be art! One hesitates to step into the current brouhaha about a national institution but here goes ..

Believe it or not, Doctor Who has been around since before Libby Purves started boring us all rigid on BBC's R4 Midweek programme. It was first broadcast on Saturday November 23rd 1963. I remember it well. It was a notable weekend as the day before President Kennedy was assassinated. I was watching 'The Man From Uncle' at the time.

From day one it has been a childrens programme watched by adults. All it has ever required of adults is that, for half an hour or so, they suspend any critical faculties they might possess and exercise whatever remains of their imagination. From day one it has been a mixed bag. Up to 1989 it was definitely a low budget affair but, like radio, that is where a little imagination works works wonders! The format of four, five or six thirty minute weekly episodes allowed writers more time to develop a plot. Our attention span must have been longer in those days! Today, it all has to happen in 45 - 60 mins. Too much running about for my liking!

I think that the Davies vs Moffatt debate is a sterile one as they are both very accomplished writers. They have both written some of the very best episodes of Doctor Who as well as a long list of other successful TV dramas and comedies. One of the pleasures, for adults, of the Davies-Moffat era is spotting what other films they have plundered as the basis of some of their Doctor Who episodes.

Although series script editor, Steven Moffat only wrote six of the thirteen episodes of the 2010 series. David Tennant was a hard act to follow and I don't think that Matt Smith really found his feet until episode ten. I particularly enjoyed 'Vincent and the Doctor' written by Richard Curtis, and episode eleven 'The Lodger' written by Gareth Roberts.

I don't understand why the BBC would cut the budget of one of its biggest moneyspinners. Since 2005 the BBC has raked in the cash. Doctor Who is screened on over 25 countries and the revenue from DVD sales must have collossal. Rumour has it that in the 2011 series Moffat intends to continue the 'Cracks in the universe' storyline of the 2010 series. Some might say that this is a mistake.

Maybe it's time to give The Doctor a rest for another ten years.

Kennybhoy - it worked, I'm cured. Thanks.